1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, image processing method, image processing program, and storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have conventionally been known techniques of printing an information symbol and allowing access from the printed information symbol to an original electronic document (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-308868).
As an example of the techniques, there is known a method of printing a composite of an original electronic document stored in a server or the like and an information symbol containing the location information of the electronic document and the like in the form of a barcode or a two-dimensional code when the electronic document is to be printed and re-accessed using the printed information symbol.
FIG. 4A shows an example of document containing QR codes as two-dimensional codes. Reference numeral 4000 denotes a document containing QR codes, and reference numerals 4001 and 4002 denote QR code. QR code 4002 is an information symbol used to supplement the explanation given in the document. Link information to a map information site is encoded within the code. This saves the trouble of manually inputting the site address and only needs to take a photo of the code with a CCD camera mounted on a cellular phone or the like and analyzing the information. This operation makes it possible to view map information with a Web browsing software or the like.
QR code 4001 is used as a document ID which includes the location of the original electronic document. It is possible to easily access the original electronic document by analyzing and decoding the QR code printed on paper.
(a) in FIG. 5 shows an example of a result of decoding the QR code 4001, and (b) in FIG. 5 shows an example of a result of decoding QR code 4002. In these examples, QR code 4001 contains a formatting system and its version information, the name of the original file, the creator of the original file, the location of the original file, comments, and the like. QR code 4002 contains homepage information, and the Web browsing function of a cellular phone or the like automatically displays a corresponding homepage using a character string “URL to:” contained in the decoding result.
However, if such a paper document is copied, transmitted over a network, or faxed, an information symbol printed in the document is also distributed. If a user does not want others to know the location of the original electronic data of a paper document, the user needs to perform an operation such as deleting the information symbol on the document using correction fluid. This is troublesome and inconvenient.